Starting a Post with an Image
If you start a post with an image even if it is just a small image to the side of the text the image code will be the first words of your post. To see this when composing your post click on the HTML tab and see the code at the beginning of your post. This is what the bots see.
If you aren’t using a plugin like All-In-One-SEO or you aren’t writing/pasting in your own excerpts more than likely your search results will show the image code and not the words you want people searching to see. Here is an example of what I’m talking about:
ReBlogWorld BlogWorld Take Away
caption id= align=aligncenter width=500 caption=REBlogWorld Conference Lift Off October 15, 2009][/caption] First, I don’t usually write this kind.
www.realestatebloglab.com/real-estate-blogging/
reblogworld-blogworld-take-away/ – 82k -
Not very interesting is it? This isn’t the information you want readers to see to entice them to click on your link.
On yesterdays post I filled in the excerpt and the indexed result for today is:
Latest PR Update Some Interesting Observations
Sep 29, 2008 … It was early on Saturday morning September 27th when I was on my little PR1 blog For No REal Reason when I looked up and noticed the little …
www.realestatebloglab.com/blogging-in-general/
latest-pr-update-some-interesting-observations/ – 83k
This is what you want those searching to find, not caption information about the image that starts the post. It starts telling the story and leads the person searching to what to know more.
The easiest way to handle this is to use the All-In-One-SEO plugin and check “Autogenerate Descriptions”
I’ve just checked this option for the Lab so I don’t have to remember to do this on each post.
You want to make sure the excerpt included in the search results say what you want to convey to the potential reader or person conduction the search.
Sometimes I write a specific excerpt if the first sentence is not what I want as the “Auto generated Description”.
It pays to pay attention to the words in your excerpts. Getting your post indexed is the first step; getting it clicked is the next logical step. You can greatly increase the likelihood of that happening if you have interesting and targeted excerpts which support your Title and post topic.
It was early on Saturday morning September 27th when I was on my little PR1 blog For No REal Reason when I looked up and noticed the little bit of green that had been there was missing. Hum! different data center? Nope PR update. I lost my lowly little PR.
Widgets were built into the basic structure of Wordpress about a bazzilion versions ago. One of those widgets native to Wordpress is the RSS Widget. It is a very powerful tool for WordPress bloggers but I don’t see it being used very often.
We all know that fresh content is one of the things Google bots love. Feed them regularly and they will return to eat more often. But is isn’t always easy to keep fresh content ready for the hungry little bots and like birds if you don’t keep the food our they will find other places to eat.
Using RSS Widgets
One way to keep things changing is through the RSS widget. Here are a couple of ideas to get you started.
Author Multiple Sites RSS Feed
If you author more than one blog you could be feeding content back and forth between them in an RSS Widget. It is easy to copy your feed into the widget and select the number of post you want in the feed. This way every time you publish a new post you create new content for both blogs.
You can Feed Any Feed
If you can feed it you can put it in an RSS Widget. Want to let the readers on your blog know what you are tweeting about on Twitter. You don’t need a widget from another source. You can put your twitter stream in an RSS widget and display it on your blog.
I’m not saying this is a good idea. From some of what I’ve read in tweets you wouldn’t want that on your blog. But it illustrates it can be done.
RSS Feed a Hashtag
Hashtags are used in Twitter to create a kind of thread. You simply put a # in front of number, letter, combination there of and you have a hashtag anyone starting a tweet with the same hashtag make it search able for that particular tag.
You could create a hashtag, create an RSS feed for that tag when searching for it on Twitter then past the feed URL into an RSS Widget on your WordPress blog. This allows you to tweet specific information to your blog by including a hashtag. Probably better than your entire Twitter stream being displayed.
Multiple Blogs, create a hashtag for each blog and you can tweet directly to the specific blog, Micro blogging within your blog. Creating fresh new content on the fly.
RSS Feeds are Good Food For Bots
These are just a few ways you can use the RSS Feed widget built into Wordpress Widgets. If you want to see some of these widgets in use check out For No REal Reason I’ve got several of them running on that site including a hashtag widget.
First, I don’t usually write this kind of post here at the Lab. But I’m writing this one for several reasons.
- I have to thank Todd Carpenter and Jason Berman for putting together a fantastic conference for REBloggers
- I need to suck up to both of them because next year (REBlogworld09 October 15, 2009) I want to speak and not mock debate Rich Jacobson (inside joke : )
- Because this conference tied to BlogWorld itself, it was like putting the chocolate coating over the desert. It made it all so much sweeter.
- Because I want to let REBloggers know they should start planning and budgeting for next years conference.
Several Times this weekend as the Blogworld conference was winding down I was asked about the best take away I have from the conference. I had to think about this and the real answer to the best take away didn’t come to me till I finally got some sleep last night.
My Greatest Take Away From Blogworld 08
After this conference I realized I’m not a Real Estate Blogger.
I’m a Blogger that writes about real estate.
Till this conference I wouldn’t have made the distinction. Now I understand. I will blog. I am a blogger. it might not always be about real estate but I will always blog.
REBlogWorld 2009
Plan to come: if you are a blogger or thinking about blogging or starting to blog. It is an amazing event and experience. It will energize your blogging. The fellow bloggers you meet, the encouragement you will get is worth the trip. It will fill you well. If your writing/blogging tank is running on fumes, or worse, on empty, this will fill your tank. The ideas, conversation, (parties) will let you network with some bleeding edge bloggers and thinkings in Real Estate today.
Thanks again to Todd and Jason, all the speakers who made the sessions a joy to attend and in my opinion held their weight even as a part of the greater BlogWorld Conference.
Now back to the Lab, where did I put my coat, Oh, Yeah, I live in Tucson we don’t have coats. : )
ActiveStrain.com “Outside in the Rain” is an Outside Blog set up to demonstrate the difference between an Active Rain Outside blog and an Open Source Wordpress Blog.
It is a tongue in cheek look at Outside blogs which Rich Jacobson and I will be debating at REBlogworld on Friday of this week ( Sept. 19,2008 ). If you want to poke around and have a chuckle you are invited to ActiveStrain.com “Outside in the Rain”
“Working Hard to Get It Out – Real Estate Blogging with Training Wheels – Who is Your Audience?”
Looking forward to meeting a lot of Lab Rats there and even a few that just like to hang around the lab.
If you get there early be sure to join the group at Gordon Biersch
for the pre-conference meet up.
Get there before 6 pm. ActiveRich is buying the first round, you definately want Active Rain to pick up this tab for you : )
I know I’m looking forward to it.
There has been a lot written about comment spam including the taboo comment example of “Great Post”. Did you know there is a time when it is appropriate to to leave a comment “Great Post”.
Today I had a “Great Post comment which inspired this post. The person who left the comment apologized for leaving it and sent an email saying it would be all right to delete it. We all know of the unwritten rule of thumb about leaving “Great Post”.
I think it is a great goal for all of us as blogger to be able to say “Great Post. Someday maybe I’ll be able to leave a comment like “Great Post”.
Here are some examples of when it is okay for you to leave a “Great Post” comment
- If everyone knows you by a single letter: T
- If everyone know you by a single name: Jay
- If everyone knows your avatar:
- If everyone knows you by your nickname: GotBob
- If you are a nationally recognized blogger: Linda Davis
- You have spoken at a national conference: Inman, NAR, REBlogWorld, Bloodhound Unchained, etc. ( This might be a stretch )
- You started blogging in a covered wagon: YOU know who you are ( Most of the name on the list above )
If Scott Kelby left a comment on a photo of mine “Great Capture Dave“. It would be fantastic. If my neighbor with his browie instamatic and camera phone did it I would delete it as patronizing or self serving.
A Goal to Attain To
Once I thought having a PR 5 blog would be like blogging heaven ( don’t get me wrong I still do : )
Now I think attaining a status of being known and respected as an authoritative blogger I can leave a comment “Great Post” and have the author of the post treasure it. That is a good goal, maybe even a great post goal.
One of the first things I noticed about WP 2.6 was the inclusion of captions for photos. I hated them. Well, I didn’t hate them. I hated having to deal with the CSS to get them to work. I also didn’t like the javascript window which opened (very slowly I might add) in order to enter a caption for a photo.
Once I figured out how to use them, and became more patient waiting for the window to open, I’ve discovered I like putting a Caption under photos.
- It gives me another place to make a point in the post.
- It gives me a way to add humor to a post by including a thought under the image instead of in the image
- It adds some nice formatting and styling to posts.
Now I use captions all the time. I still don’t see them being used much on other blogs.
I wanted to tweak the CSS to make them display larger text and I’ve been thinking about changing the border and font colors as well.
At first I thought they were a nuisance now I find them an opportunity to communicate and bring another level of interest to a blog post.
You too can tweak the captions CSS and put your own brand on it, but I would suggest you stay away from pink borders with white text.
Customizing Your Captions
Go to Design, Theme editor and edit your style sheet. This is assuming you have already included the Captions CSS Code in your theme.
.wp-caption {
border: 1px solid #000000; (Color of the border)
text-align: center;
background-color: #333333; (Color of the background around the image)
padding-top: 4px;
margin: 10px;
-moz-border-radius: 4px; (Making the Corners Round 3 is the default)
-khtml-border-radius: 4px;
-webkit-border-radius: 4px;
border-radius: 4px;
}Further down you will see:
.wp-caption p.wp-caption-text {
font-size: 12px; (I changed this from 11px to 12 to make the text larger)
line-height: 18px; (Increased the line height to accommodate the larger text)
padding: 0 4px 5px;
margin: 0;
color: #ffffff; (Added this color statement to change the color of the text to white instead of default black)
}
If you haven’t started using Captions yet. Take them for spin, you might find out you like them.
But please, don’t use pink borders with white text. Promise me you won’t do this : )
Is the Weight worth the Freight
I wrote in July 2007 about “Photos an Overlooked Part of Your Real Estate Blog Traffic” In short when you host your own photos and reference them in posts the photos and the URL to those photos get indexed by the search engines. They store those links and people doing image searches will find your site when they click on those images.
I’ve been reading a lot lately about what you can do to speed up your blog load time and keep the site from blotting with images. The main suggestion is letting Flickr host those images and put the links to the images in your posts rather than host the images yourself.
We use Yahoo’s servers and bandwidth and not our own when those images are displayed.
However, we also give up the link back to our site when those images are found in the image indexes of the search engines.
Is there value in the traffic coming from those image searches vs the decrease in load time and size of your home page in kilobytes?
Testing A Theory in The Lab on Images and Load Times
For the past week the images I’m using in my Tucson Real Estate blog posts have been hosted on my Flickr account. I don’t have any way of knowing if it is decreasing the load time yet. But i should have some idea of the homepage file size in a few days as I see it and other post pages sizes returned in Google searches.
I’ve been one to like hosting my own images. I’m also in favor of making those pages/posts load as fast as possible.
What do you think? Do you host your own images? Do you link to images from a Flickr account or some other photo sharing source?
I’ve learned a few things about putting Flickr images in posts and getting the captions to appear around them. I also learned about putting images on Flickr but keeping them out of the photo stream and onto blog posts. More on that this weekend.
What I’m really interested in is how you are handling images in your blog posts.
Please note, I’m not saying it had a virus. IT DID NOT. It had a cold. A cold I gave it while trying to nurse it back to health.
Typical isn’t it. Break something while trying to fix it.
Last night the lab was running the slowest I had ever seen it run. There were comments waiting for moderation, but they wouldn’t go away no matter what I did. Approve, still there, Delete, still there, then some were there a couple of times. It was like waiting for paint to dry.
Not much sleep last night wondering what to do with my sick kid. This morning a fresh reboot and my baby was still very sick.
Diagnosing the issue is often harder than the treatment itself. I thought about upgrading from 2.6 to 2.6.2. I backed up the database using the WP backup plugin. It took 30 minutes to do what usually takes 30 sec. That was when I decided the issues were probably in the MYSQL database itself.
During the recent upheaval I created a new MYSQL database on my other hosting package and attached the Lab to it. Not much changed, at first. But it seemed to have some flacky behavior (more than usual). After that long backup this morning I:
- Went to the hosting MYSQL database and did a backup at the hosting level
- Went to the hosting site where the rest of the lab files reside and created a new MYSQL 5.0 database
- Restored the data backup from the slow DB to the new DB on the hosting package where the lab files reside
- Changed the wp-config.php file to point it to the new DB and it was like turbo charging the Lab.
Time to Upgrade to 2.6.2
What the heck, why would I want to sit back and enjoy the new speed. I downloaded 2.6.2 and (no I didn’t install it at the Lab) I have my new guinea pig site For Now REal Reason which got the upgrade first. It was already on 2.6.1 and required no upgrade to function. Everything there looked good so it was time to pull the string and upgrage the Lab.
I’m now writing this after that upgrade. I just did a save of this post and was returned to the editor in 10 seconds.
I don’t know if it was slow because of the use of two hosting packages to get the data together in one browser, or if it was just a fluke to start with and there was corruption in the database. Whatever the cause all seems to be functioning better now.
I hope for all who are leaving comments or browsing around the Lab you will see an improvement in function.
Now it’s time to quit messing with the Lab setup (for today : ) and get on to some useful stuff in RE blogging.
I’m wondering how many of you have downloaded and tried using Google Chrome to write, edit and maintain your WordPress blog.
This is my first attempt to do so. I’m finding it to be an interesting experience to say the least. It keeps wanting to put extra spaces between my paragraph breaks especially if I switch between HTML and Visual.
When I opened the editor to write a new post, I entered the title then down to the body of the post. I wrote a word and when I backspaced over the word and one more backspace it took me to the Dashboard, not the top line of the editor. I tried it several times and it repeated this action each time. ”Don’t do it”
I’ve also noticed this browser seems to learn. One time it will not know what to do, but the next time it will do it even to the point of saying some URL’s are not available, but later it will open them.
I’ve also noticed that making options changes might require you to close the browser completely and re open to see the changes take effect.
The first time I tried to write a post in Chrome I clicked on the link button and it wouldn’t allow the pop up window to appear so I could enter the link. However, later it worked fine.
It is stripped down, No bells, no whistles, and even the Google things you might expect incorporated are not available like the Google Toolbar or Google Gears. I’ve done a couple of saves and it seems a little faster than FF with Google Gears or Flock without Gears.
Preview a post can be a wild trip at times. I’ll let you see what it does for yourself. Maybe nothing, maybe . . .
I know I was going to watch Dirty Harry and call it a night, but I had 20 minutes to wait so thought I’d take Chrome for another quick spin around the blog.
Has anyone put this browser through the WordPress meatgrinder? Or was that were weekend GEEK project?
Gotta Go time for the Dead Pool.
Thanks for letting me return to my youth and enjoy that momentary trek back in time.
Yesterday I wrote about Wordpress Version or GoDaddy Hosting. I love how quickly Google indexes some things and already today had a response by comment from someone at GoDaddy and a missed call (I was at the Dr. office, they don’t like cell phones there much) and a second comment in response from the person at GoDaddy leaving the comment. The tech from Godaddy said he would call me later this evening to see if he can help address the slowness of the blog.
Here are some of the things I’ve done today which have had some effect but not the kind Kirk wanted from Scotty.
- Google Gears was already installed, but I was using the Flock browser and not FF. I’m using FF. (Still like Flock better)
- I removed all plugins that were not being used. I have tested a lot of them over the past couple of years and removed everyone not in use.
- I took out the database calls in the header file and replaced them with static HTML
- I installed the Dashboard Management Plugin and removed almost everything from the dashboard except incoming links and write new post
- I created a new database on a different server backup the lab database and restored on the other server (clean lay down of the data)
- Tied to 5 above, the new database is MYSQL 5.0 the old one was 4.0 The new server is PHP 5 the old one was PHP 4
- I activated the WP Super Cache plugin and configured it.
Most of these are considered to improve load times rather than navigation inside the admin panel or editor. The saves in the editor and navigation from editor, to comment management, to dashboard, to plugins is where a lot of the wait time comes in.
By putting the database on another server I split the calls to the server between images and database calls which are not on two separate servers. Of course the down side: “Now I have to have two servers functioning to load the blog.” HUM!
I just pressed “Save” and it took 20 seconds for the save to take place and the editor to be available to continue. I think some of this must have to do with saving Post Revisions of a single post. I really wish this was an option to be turned off.
I also wrote a quick draft post in a 2.2.2 WP blog today and none of these issues were apparent.
Google Gears Auto Save and Post Revisions
I thought Google Gears was to move much of the editing functions to my HD, yet with every save or move I see “Waiting on www.realestatebloglab.com” at the bottom of the screen. The only thing it should be doing there is saving the post. I get the same message when opening a blank editor to write a new post. I also wish I could set the time between auto saves because it save a lot and hesitates while doing so.
Comparative Load Times
I have to wonder if WP wasn’t experiencing some of these issues in development. Maybe that’s why we even have the TURBO option. I hope this is something that can be addressed in the next release, but I fear it is going to be more bells and whistles with more whistle time while waiting.
Save and Log In Again.
Finally ready to preview this post, pressed Save once again and after 30 seconds was sent to the login screen. After logging back in there were a couple of words missing from my last edit.
Maybe all these auto saves aren’t such a bad idea after all.
Have a great evening, I’m going to go watch Dirty Harry for the fifth time this week. I think it is the “Dead Pool” tonight. I feel like I’ve been swimming in it all day. Oh, Geez here goes another attempt at save.
ReBlogWorld 2010
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This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License.Yeah Right !
The LBC Designation for Comments
By Dave Smith Saturday September 27, 2008
Do Follow SEO Lists
There are now multiple lists of blogs which allow or use “do follow” on their blogs comments. These list have lead to an increase in what I refer to as comment spam. These are comments like “Great Post” “Wow, I really got a lot out of this” “Your blog has a lot of useful information” You get the idea. These are usually posts using keyword spamming (taught to them by the same SEO guru publishing the list) in the Name field. Another sure sign of this kind of spam comments are the ever changing urls used in a string of comments left one after another in a short period of time.
As I wrote earlier in the post on Lucia’s Link Love Plugin you can set a limit to the number of character acceptable in the name field to trip a switch and remove the “do follow” from the comment. I like this and find it helpful. I’ve recently heard some “SEO types are saying this selective do follow will be penalized by Google” Hum, why would they do this? But, if they do, then there will be on do follow plugins activated, or all comments of this type will be deleted in moderation, better yet, these types of comments will be designated “SPAM” and Askimet will flag any comment by this author as such.
Active Rainers Let Loose on The Blogosphere
I recently joined Active Rain because of an assignment for REBlogworld in Las Vegas. I find Active Rain to be the best peer to peer industry related social network and forum bar none. I say this without malice, it is the closest thing to a Real Estate Blogging Cult there is. They even call themselves Rainers. They comment with abandon for “points” for both posts and comments. It is like a giant RE Video Pinball parlor where you can rack up points for just about anything and get your name put on the “Highest Scores Board”. It is the Place of Virtual Real Estate Life.
However, I’ve discovered they don’t always stay confined inside that life. Some of them inadvertently venture out into the Blogosphere and view leaving mundane comments on do follow blogs as another type of “Point System”. (Rich I wrote this just for you, I thought you might be missing Active Strain : )
The LBC Designation for Comments
Therefore, I’ve decided to create a Link Back Comment or LBC designation for comments. If you are commenting on a blog and it is just for a link back, use the LBC at the beginning of your comment to designate it as such. It is like using a hashtag on Twitter.
This will save you the time of reading the post. (Which most don’t anyway). It might also keep your comments from being reported as spam instead of simply being deleted. If you are in need of a link back because you don’t have the time to create quality content yourself then using the LBC in front of your comments might get more of them published on blogs.
It also tells readers of a post and the comments associated with the post they can skip this comment since it isn’t really adding to the discussion in any manner it is just a self serving comment for the LBC author.
This will make it easier for legitimate readers since they will not have to wade through these mundane self serving comments to get to those that really do contribute to the discussion.
Here is an example:
Bolding the LBC is optional, it might be a good idea however to make it easier to spot for readers so they can skip it.
There might be a few LBC bloggers that read this and I would like you to leave a real comment on the idea and not an LBC comment.
I would also like to hear what other bloggers think about the idea. Would you approve LBC comments? Would you use them as a quick way to identify comments to delete or send to Askimet Spam? Is it just a bad idea and we all need to learn to live with mundane comment spam and the occational Rainer that escapes.
If you’ve read this far what do you think? Is my tongue firmly planted in cheek? How many times did you smile as you read this, how many times did you laugh out loud? If you should get an LBC designated comment would you be willing to share it or just delete it and keep on smiling?